Guitar Amplifier Pioneer Jim Marshall Passes Away

Jim Marshall, the man dubbed the "father of loud," who founded the iconic Marshall guitar amplifiers has passed away at the age of eighty eight. The cause of death has not yet been revealed. Guitar hero Slash, formerly of Guns N Roses, has posted a message online via Twitter which reads:

"The news of Jim Marshall passing is deeply saddening. R & R will never be the same w/out him. But, his amps will live on FOREVER!"

A message has also been posted online on the official Marshall website, which reads:

"It is with profound sorrow that we announce the passing of our beloved founder and leader for the past 50 years, Jim Marshall. While mourning the Guv’nor though, we also salute a legendary man who led a full and truly remarkable life.

"Jim’s ascent into the history books as ‘the Father of Loud’ and the man responsible for ‘the Sound of Rock’ is a true rags-to-riches tale. Cruelly robbed of his youth by tubercular bones, Jim rose to become one of the four forefathers responsible for creating the tools that allowed rock guitar as we know and love it today to be born. The ground breaking quartet also included the late, great trio of Leo Fender, Les Paul and Seth Lover – together with Jim, they truly are the cornerstones of all things rock.

"In addition to the creation of the amps chosen by countless guitar heroes and game changing bands, Jim was also an incredibly humble and generous man who, over the past several decades, has quietly donated many millions of pounds to worthy causes."

I was 15 years old and I was saving up all of my money for a Mesa Boogie guitar amplifier. Any guitar player from back in the day knows the Mesa Boogie catalogs were a work of art and the stuff dreams were made of. The beautiful full color pictures and descriptive copy made you salivate. I poured over those pages, dreaming of the day when one of those beauties would be mine, and I was almost there... I had $700 saved.

And then I walked into Wayne Music. There sitting along the hallway wall was a 100-watt JMP Marshall top and matching 4x12 cabinet with 25-watt black back Celestion speakers. I lost my mind. "MOM!! MOM!! This is what I want. This is it!!! I gotta have it!!.' My Mom tried to talk me in from the ledge 'But Den, you've been saving for the Mesa-Boogie amp, you almost have enough money.' 'Yeah, I know Mom but this is a Marshall!'. They wanted $750 so my Mom gave me the difference and we left the store with it, me wedging it into the back seat of my Mom's maroon Ford Fairmount.

I remember the next day I had my friend over to show him the amp, my Mom and her friend Fran were in the kitchen, about 15 feet away from where this EL-34 powered behemoth sat in our TEENY TINY living room. I asked, "Hey Mom, I can I just show this to Anthony for a second? I promise I won't play it long.". She of course said it was fine. That's the kind of Mom she was. So..... I grabbed my 1965 Gibson SG Jr and plugged in. Turning the amp on, even with the guitar volume down you could hear how incredibly loud it was just idling. I turned my guitar's volume knob up and ELECTRICITY filled the shoebox sized room. I took my pick and with my left hand muting all of the strings I simply 'chunked' on the strings. It was like a freight train came barreling through. It seemed as if every one of the NUMEROUS knick knacks on the piano, television and shelves (my Mom had a thing for tchotchkes) bounced in the air. My Mom's friend Fran who was an elderly woman (or just always seemed that way) looked as if she was ELECTROCUTED!! She was lifted out of her seat, twitching. I swear I saw her beauty shop hairdo have lift off.

Thus began my love affair with Marshall amps. Thanks Jim Marshall, you were a force to be reckoned with and made all of my childhood dreams come true.

RIP. Great amps and have played on them many time. Some of my studio work was on Marshall stacks and love the sound. It doesn't matter if it's a 15 watt practice amp or a full on stack the sound is amazing.

Great story Dennis.... I also started playing at 15 years old and I was in love with Crate amps but, Marshall has an awesome sound. A sound that can fit any style of music.

The best thing about Mr. Marshall is he resisted the temptation to have his product built outside its founding place of origion,unlike Fender and Gibson. Marshall's built in UK still i believe. Kudos,and RIP to a towering figure in heavy music!